Southern Union’s board already accepted Energy Transfer’s offer, but at $44 a share, Williams bid might be considered superior, despite the hefty termination fees that are built into Energy Transfer’s deal.

Like its previous offers, Williams’ latest is all cash. Energy Transfer is offering Southern Union investors a chance to take either cash or Energy Transfer partnership interests.

As I wrote last week, this deal was already getting expensive at $40 a share, but the value of Southern Union’s assets to both bidders is so great that it’s likely we’ll see a response from Energy Transfer before this is over.